About

I’m an investment banker, private pilot and avid fan of American history. I also enjoy Thai food, camping, gardening, Robert Ludlum novels and almost anything made with chocolate.

About 3 decades ago I left Texas to attend Brown University. Four years later I left Rhode Island with a Chemical Engineering degree and a recognition that snow is seriously overrated.

The first of my family to arrive in the “New World” left Wales in 1623 on the Bona Nova and docked at Jamestown, near where I currently live – and not far from the homes of Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Tyler, Taylor, Wilson and William Henry Harrison.

About a decade ago I started collecting the best presidential biographies I could find. In late 2012 I began a quest to read them all – starting with George Washington. This site was created to log my journey and, quite possibly, embarrass my kids.

With your suggestions and a steady flow of new releases, my list of “must read” presidential biographies grew to 240 titles (plus a large follow-up list). I finished my first pass through the presidents (Washington through Obama) on Presidents’ Day 2019 – after six fascinating years.

Now I’m reading presidential biographies from my follow-up list as well as great biographies by non-presidents (that journey is being documented as http://www.thebestbiographies.com).

I have thought of doing that as a corollary to the presidents but just haven’t “gone deep” trying to find great biographies of each of the First Ladies. I am, however, planning to read a 3-volume series on Eleanor Roosevelt toward the end of the year and will be reading Jon Meacham’s forthcoming bio of Dolley and James Madison as soon as it is published.

For what it’s worth, the other similar question I’m often asked is whether I would consider doing the same thing for UK Prime Ministers. I think that, too, would be fascinating but haven’t done the work to ferret out great bios of the non-Churchill PMs.

Your path on Reading the Best Biographies of All Time is excellent. Instead of only focusing on political leaders, you are broadening your scope. We all focus on the political leaders (I am exhibit A), but finance, industry, et al. have a profound impact on society. William Jennings Bryan, Eugene Debs, Frederick Douglass, WEB DuBois, et al. led movements which contributed to radical changes.

Yes the 3 volume series on Eleanor Roosevelt I’ve heard is great. Jon Meacham, Dolly and James Madison? I’m in. I bet it will be a great book. On the subject of Churchill, I believe I saw Martin Gilbert’s 8 book series on your list? Look forward to your review on that, whenever that might be.

Please Note: Every book I review has been purchased by me. Bestpresidentialbios.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.